Inside a giant photocopy machine

[Dan Salzmann]

I've got a project where someone is inside a giant photocopy machine.

I require a really intense "tube of light" that can be on a track system that will be seen.

It would need to be about 10 feet tall.

Kinoflo and other fluorescent tubes are not intense enough and too soft.

Any ideas for a suitable light source?

[Hal Smith]

I've got a project where someone is inside a giant photocopy machine.

I require a really intense "tube of light" that can be on a track system that will be seen.

It would need to be about 10 feet tall.

Kinoflo and other fluorescent tubes are not intense enough and too soft.

Any ideas for a suitable light source?

If you've got a large budget you might look into series stringing a bunch of the longer double ended halogen lamps together and clamping them (or tying them on with iron wire) to a supporting metal rod. The string of lights would have to be run off a transformer that boosted the voltage up to whatever was necessary to run the string. 10 lamps in series at 120 volts for instance would require a 1200 volt secondary transformer rated at whatever power all 10 lamps require (the electrical industry calls this type of transformer a "dry transformer"). The GE QH1000T3/CL heat lamp bulb ( http://genet.geappliances.com/LightProduct...ODUCTCODE=22357 ) has wire terminals that would be fairly easy to series connect and it's a little over 13" long, 10 of them would do the trick for you. They have a color temperature of 2500K, it should be possible to over volt them somewhat to drive the color temperature up, if you're creating the look of a copy machine overdriving them to 3200K shouldn't cause a overheating problem since they wouldn't be on that long at any one time. I'd talk to GE Lighting for their recommendations.

 

Obviously this rig would run pretty hot - keep it away from combustibles!

[Phil Rhodes]

Hi,

 

Several howie battens?

 

They're made up of individual MR16 lamps, but they're so bright I'm sure you'd just see a huge flare.

 

Phil

[Hal Smith]

Hi,

 

Several howie battens?

 

They're made up of individual MR16 lamps, but they're so bright I'm sure you'd just see a huge flare.

 

Phil

Over here Altman makes two lines of MR strips, Zipstrips using MR16's and Microstrips using MR11's. Go to www.altmanlighting.com and search for "strip" to get the catalog page. The mics-3 would be your best best (IMHO), it's 5' long so two would work.

[Dan Salzmann]

My concern with the batten lights/zip strips is that since the source would be seen they would appear as a series of sources in a line instead of one continuous source.

It is imprtant that it appears as one verical line of really intense light.

[Michael Nash]

Is there any possibility of augmenting it in post by "covering up" the practical light source with a composited or CG "tube"? Roger Deakins used that approach in Jarhead to create the light from fire plumes (using battens, I believe), and the flames were added in post.

[Hal Smith]

It is imprtant that it appears as one verical line of really intense light.

Copiers use basically the same kind of light as a double ended halogen, that's why I thought up a gag that really would look like a copier scanner light.

[Jessica Bennett]

It seems to me that it could be more appropriate to shoot the whole thing on greenscreen. But if you must have the 10' light tube, you'll have to build a frame and wrap it with some diffusion. Or get the perfect thin, frosted/white plastic. Weigh it down on a doorway dolly or similar and push it on dolly track. If you build a tube like this for just a few shots, you'll have to keep the light rigging light-weight, or just not top heavy. We've built many strips of lights that are globes on battin, but the halogens can cause fires rigged on wood, and electric shock on metal. Do that one safely.